IF THE history of the Revolution might almost be regarded as Washington's
biography, so might the history of the United States since 1801 be described as the development of Jefferson's
political ideas. Washington was the man of action, Jefferson the philosophic politician; Washington was a Federalist,
Jefferson a Republican; but both had solely the welfare of their country in view, and each adopted toward that'
end the means most fitting at the time. :fit the outset the Union needed to emphasize the policy of centralization;
but after the Union had thus been established it must either depend upon the people or be metamorphosed into a
monarchy, or go to pieces. Washington died before the people were fully recognized as the fountain of power and
honor; but Jefferson had accepted this dogma in advance of his contemporaries, and based his life and faith upon
its truth. He believed sincerely in the people; he announced that government by them was "the strongest on
earth"; he laid all his political plans with that conclusion in view; and the main principles which he advocated
and carried out are the reigning principles of our belief and practice to-day. The mistakes which he made are mainly
the same mistakes which we have since repeated. The difficulties which most embarrassed him perplex us Still. The
inconsistencies which are chargeable against him have characterized us since he died. But after the varied experience
of nearly a hundred years we find that the acts which have made us great are generally those which he would have
countenanced; and that the follies which have disgraced us are such as would have aroused his opposition. We remember
that he wrote our Declaration and presided over the birth of our Constitution. That Constitution was so wisely
flexible as to render possible the existence of an intelligent opposition, whichever theory of its interpretation
was uppermost; therefore it had in it a soul of indestructible life. But Jefferson declared that difference of
opinion did not necessitate difference of principle, and that where reason is free, error may be tolerated. Peace
rather than pride was his aim; and he thought that the less of government we could get on with the better for the
commonweal. His inaugural address was the triple essence of political sagacity; and in the practical conduct of
public affairs he was uniformly faithful to his maxims as laid down beforehand. He encountered obstacles, which
would have wrecked almost any other man, with wonderful intelligence, foresight, and success; and left America
so much greater and sounder and more self comprehensive than he found her that we might say he was the builder
with the materials which his predecessors had done little more than accumulate. His Embargo Act was a mistake;
and yet even that was a choice of evils, the alternative being to encounter outrages and provocations which could
not have failed to bring on war. Had circumstances not been modified at the time it was repealed, we might have
found ourselves leaving the frying pan to enter the fire.

Peace was Jefferson's ardent desire; could peace be assured, his theory of politics would be beyond criticism.
But war is sometimes inevitable; and war must always put pure Jeffersonian democracy to its severest test. There
must always be the risk that the country will be found unprepared - when the critical moment arrives. On the other
hand, the alternative is to maintain an army and navy on the European scale in time of peace, and with the object
of making peace perpetual, which seems an absurdity in terms, and which also must involve obvious risks, and constant
heavy expenditure. Here is a dilemma which can never be fully solved until war ceases out of the world-a contingency
not to be regarded by practical men. It is conceivable that science may so refine its methods that at the smallest
cost of men, money or preparation, destructive effects can be produced which will render resistance vain; and in
that case the nation can pursue its peaceful avocations up to the very threshold of battle without risk of disadvantage.
But speculations are not argument; and so long as we are governed on the Jeffersonian basis we shall always be
liable to surprise and perhaps temporary disaster in our foreign relations. Doubtless no lasting success could
ever attend an attack upon us; our only vital danger is to be feared from our own selves. But so long as European
monarchies, with all that they imply, exist, we cannot deem ourselves beyond the reach of loss and annoyance.

It was of course on this ground that Jefferson advised against entangling alliances, and suggested the policy which
has become so prominent of late under the name of the Monroe Doctrine. But we have proved that these devices do
not suffice to protect us against danger, and it is still a question to what extent the American Idea should be
pushed, and what means we should adopt to push it. Peace without honor is intolerable; and we are, beneath our
commercial exterior, as warlike as any nation of history. If a great world struggle be at hand, or should it ever
come, we cannot hope to hold wholly aloof from it; and the good of the human race requires that when we do take
our part in it, it shall be decisive of the objects involved.

But the fact that Jeffersonianism is open to certain criticisms in the present state of the world and of civilization
does not detract from its essential merit; it is the policy of the Golden Age, and that policy must not wait until
the Golden Age comes before announcing itself and setting about its work. Its practice. even under imperfect conditions,
is the surest if not the only way to bring the Age to birth. It is right in itself, and right in action is the
best of proselytizers. The world already accepts the principle, and only awaits opportunity to embrace its concrete
realization. Meanwhile the century has added nothing to Jefferson's analysis; it has only more or less lucidly
interpreted it.

Jefferson by birth belonged to the patrician class, and was therefore the readier to observe the forms of democracy.
Accident having placed within his reach all that birth could give, he could slight it and carry out the theory
of equality by his example as well as by his precept. For this gift of station and fortune he entertained no respect,
either as illustrated in himself or in others. There was perhaps some humorous amusement for him in drawing incumbents
of office from the ranks, and witnessing the discomfiture of old school Federalists, who had never conceived that
government could be intrusted to one who could not speak grammatically and act correctly in a drawing-room. It
is certainly mortifying to be "ordered about" by our social inferiors; and we of this age witness this
situation quite as often as did the people of the early century. That it is open to vast abuses and inconveniences
none can deny; but they are not dangerous ones. Power in office may make a patrician evil; but it tends to make
a plebeian better behaved, if not better in spirit. Public opinion is a check upon his baser propensities, and,
in a democracy, the punishment that public opinion is always liable to visit upon offenders. The scum rises; but
the safest place for scum is on the top, because there it can best be observed and either rejected or purified.
As a matter of fact, the great crimes that have stained our political annals have not been committed by the scum,
but by the cultivated members of the community. The scum steals money and condones vice in our municipalities;
but that we are robbed and that we are disposed to vice is the fault not of the scum but of ourselves. If we exercise
civic circumspection and control- our appetities, the scum is powerless; meanwhile it may serve a useful purpose
in demonstrating to us how far we are from perfection.

Jefferson, then, may have hitched his horse to the paling of the Capitol when he came to be inaugurated; or he
may have walked from his lodgings two hundred yards away, as the other party to, the controversy insists; and have
worn a pair of trousers instead of knee breeches, and used strings instead of buckles for his shoes. At all events
he chose to be democratic in his manners as well as in his ideas; and if he chose to yield to a histrionic whim
in regard to some externals, it could do no harm and might do some good. He was great enough to do as he pleased.
We must also observe that he was greater as President than he had been before; success improved him; he bad spoken
sometimes as a pessimist while out of office; and the stealthy persistence with which he built up his party and
arranged his campaign in advance of his election might be construed as slyness and cunning. But it is in vain that
we try to pick flaws in Jefferson; that we say he played for popularity; that he was pusillanimous in his foreign
policy; that he was indirect; that he was heartless. These and other accusations turn out to be untrue; because
the man was on a larger scale than can be comprehended at a glance; and when we think we have spied a fault, we
are apt to find that it is but a virtue partially seen. We have never had a politician so great as or more sincere
than he; and if we never have another, we are still more fortunate than other nations. His was an exquisitely organized
and broad-based intellect disposed to good; one of the rarest things in the world. Bacon, perhaps, had a mightier
mind; but his moral nature was less admirable than Jefferson's; and Jefferson had the saving sense of humor which
the Englishman lacked. The charge of heartlessness is absurd; the heart gives constancy and energy; and who surpassed
Jefferson in these respects? Those keen, quizzical blue eyes of his could no doubt be cold upon occasion; he could
not help seeing all round and beyond the scope of his chance interlocutor. But his kindliness was deeper than his
coldness, and it became more manifest as he grew older. He valued his friendships, and took more pains than do
most men of his caliber to maintain them. Who but Jefferson would have held to the stubborn and contrary Adams
with such persistence and success?-so that they two, who would have been mortal enemies had both been of Adams's
temper, went down the hill of life arm in arm, in cordial and noble communion. On the other hand, evil could not
win him, come it in never so plausible and winning a guise; he kept himself clear of Aaron Burr; and every year
he lived found him more and more on the side of the angels, as Disraeli would have said; and arrayed against the
powers of darkness under whatever form.

For the romantic background of a great American work of the imagination the Administration of Jefferson offers
advantages superior to those of any other of our Presidents; for that of Lincoln is too much of one tone to suit
the requirements of art. Surprising events occurred, and picturesque incidents; and at least one achievement of
a magnitude and importance unsurpassed in our annals. Great characters move across the stage, and vast schemes
succeed or fail. There is fighting, and there is negotiation; and there are panoramic glimpses of the past, and
fore shadowings of the future. And in the center, originating and controlling the action, we see always the slender
figure of a foxy-haired man, six feet two inches in height, plainly clad, careless in bearing, courteous and composed,
observant and contemplative. He is the foremost man of his day in America, and yet-such is the singularity of those
early time she is the President of the Republic!

Among the other notable figures of this period are Burr the Vice President; Hamilton; Monroe; Gallatin; Randolph
of Roanoke, that "ghost of a monkey" as he was termed in the critical amenities of the time; Madison,
Secretary of State; Clinton, the Vice President of the second term. Abroad there are, not to mention others, Talleyrand
again, and the great Napoleon. For the interludes we have the Dey of Algiers and him of Tripoli, and Toussaint
L'Ouverture, the French West Indian negro, who did his black fellow countrymen the service of establishing them
in a republic of their own; and the disservice, perhaps outweighing the benefit, of arousing hopes of a successor
of his greatness destined never to be fulfilled. The minor characters of the egregious comedy, not less' interesting
in their degree, are numberless. The play continues eight years, and after many vicissitudes the end is happy.

Jefferson had been called all manner of names by his opponents previous to his inauguration, which were meant to
indicate that he was a maniacal innovator, who would, as the phrase is, put his foot in it whenever he opened his
mouth. They were much disappointed; therefore, at what actually happened; the address was conciliatory to all;
and Jefferson's policy showed not only a political sagacity which left other policies looking foolish, but a knowledge
of human nature in the broad, especially as instanced in his fellow countrymen, which was Shakespearian. He perceived
that the great Federal leaders were too closely wedded to their ideas to be withdrawn from them; but he knew that
this would not be the case with the people whom they had led; and therefore he opened the way for these to unite
themselves with the Republicans without seeming to abandon their essential convictions. Everybody likes to feel
that he has a share in the Government; and Jefferson showed the Federalist rank and file that their party aimed
to gradually secure the ruling power to a few superior individuals, and to leave them with the privilege only of
being well managed. No stronger or gentler lure could have been held out than the assurance that he who joined
the Republicans became his own king. So far as this argument was concerned, Jefferson had it all his own way; but
there were divergent ideas as to local politics which had nothing to do with Federals or Republicans as such; and
these remained to disturb the peace in their measure. In foreign affairs there was little difference of opinion,
as soon as the designs of Jefferson could be known though, while they were still in the secret stage, they aroused
criticism enough, which the critics bad leisure to repent of. The Louisiana Purchase was the largest and most complicated
of these transactions. The vast wedge of territory which borders on the Mississippi and ranges indefinitely westward
till it reaches the Pacific in the neighborhood of Oregon, had been ceded to Spain by France in 1762. In 1802 it
became known to Jefferson that it had been ceded back to France by a secret treaty. Napoleon, for whom half the
world was not space enough, meant to establish France firmly in the west, and thus complete the discomfiture of
England? While the transfer was accomplishing, the port of New Orleans was closed to American commerce, much to
the. inconvenience and indignation of the American settlers in the valley, who bad hitherto used it. Knowing nothing
of the inside of what was going forward, they could see only that Spain was obstructing them, in defiance of treaty
rights; and they were for war forthwith. Now Jefferson, who was all for peace whenever possible, had conceived
the idea of getting New Orleans by purchase, and was sending Monroe as special envoy to France to assist the aged
Livingstone, our resident minister in Paris, in arranging for the sale. Pending the result, he was careful to offend
neither Spain nor France, popular clamor notwithstanding. Spain made proper apologies in due time; and Napoleon,
having made up his mind that he would need all his strength to settle England in Europe, and that her control of
the sea would disable him from occupying America, abruptly resolved to rid himself of the latter by selling it
to the United States thus at one stroke putting that Government under an obligation and enormously strengthening
her against his enemy England. Nor was the money which he would get for the sale an unimportant consideration.
He demanded one hundred million francs; fifty were offered by the surprised Americans (who had never expected to
get more than the island of New Orleans with some little adjoining territory), and eighty million were accepted.
Here Monroe showed to advantage, and proved that he had advanced in diplomacy since his former French experience.
A weaker man would have feared to take the responsibility of so large a transaction without further instructions
from home; and Napoleon was a man who would be on to-day and off to-morrow; one had to settle with him while one
was in the way with him, or not at all. Monroe acted with as much promptness as did the First Consul; and moreover
had the self-possession to beat him down in his price. The region thus added to our domain contained the material
for twelve large States; and though it was still almost unsettled, except by Indians, it entirely altered our position
as a nation before the world. Jefferson himself was at first a little embarrassed by, the size of the acquisition;
and wished that a part of it should for the present be reserved for Indian occupation. The territory was surveyed,
by his direction, by Lewis and Clark, who thus furnished the first authentic news of the nature and resources of
the country. It fell to Congress to decide whether the States to be formed from it should admit slavery; and it
was unfortunately resolved not to refuse this privilege. Jefferson believed that the country would finally divide
on the Mississippi, instead of North and South. The proslavery men in Congress were, for the time being, less aggressive
than formerly; and New Jersey and New York abolished slavery within their borders. The influence of Wilberforce
in England in favor of totally abolishing slavery was felt in this country; the provision of the Constitution to
forbid the importation of slaves after 1808 was to be carried out; and, altogether, Jefferson's Mississippi boundary
was plausible.

The most depressed man in America at this juncture was Hamilton, who found no work for his hand to do, and who
could not find personal happiness in the prosperity of his country. He had, however, showed true patriotism, or
at least political foresight, in declining to be a party to a scheme which was being broached, to make a separate
commonwealth of New England, with the addition, if possible, of New York and New Jersey; these States being the
seat of what remained of the Federalists. Aaron Burr was not so particular; but the plan fell through, and Burr
was left for another destiny. Hamilton had favored winning Louisiana by war, and had been mortified by the success
of the superior policy of Jefferson. He had no influence with the Government, and could not even get his pamphlet
attacks upon it noticed. He was the most successful practitioner at the bar, and could make a fortune every year;
but he had never cared for money. He was annoyed by being classed with the supporters of Aaron Burr, whose sole
political policy was his own advancement by whatever means might offer. "What can I do better than withdraw
from the scene?" he asked his friends. "Every day proves to me more and more that this American world
was not made for me." His' discontent was to meet with an answer such as he little anticipated. Aaron Burr
was his mortal enemy; Hamilton bad thwarted him in his New England scheme, and was his successful rival at the
bar. Hamilton, at the time when Burr was trying for the Governorship of New York, had opposed him, and incidentally
given expression to his opinion of him within such bounds as were considered legitimate in political controversy.
Burr was now a political ruin, but his hatreds were only the more animated. He loved a shining mark, and fixed
upon Hamilton as the scapegoat of his revenge. He took exception to remarks made by Hamilton during the canvass,
and demanded that they be withdrawn. This Hamilton could not do; and Burr was thus enabled to challenge him to
a duel. Burr meant to kill his man; he was a good shot, and he practiced for this encounter; upon his steadiness
of nerve on the field he knew he could rely. Hamilton was averse to the encounter from the beginning; but in that
age a challenge could not be refused without the charge of cowardice, which Hamilton lacked the "higher courage"
to endure. Indeed, one can hardly
blame him for this: he was a soldier; he bad acted a high part in the world; he lived in his ambitions; had he
declined the challenge, his career would have ended in disgrace, however little merited. He accepted, therefore;
though be seems to have underrated Burr's deadly purpose, and did not look forward to a fatal rermination. The
men met in the early morning of the 11th of July, 1804. On the word being given, Burr took good aim and fired;
his bullet struck Hamilton in the right breast, and he fell on his face-his own pistol going off in the air, whether
designedly or by accident. This duel has been called a murder, and an assassination; but it was not more so than
are other duels. It was an irrationality for which society was responsible. It is true that Burr goaded Hamilton
into fighting,. and that he was perhaps a better shot than he; but when they stood facing each other that morning,
Burr was risking his life; and the duel asks no more. There is no cure for the duel except the improvement of society;
for the device of banging the surviving principal, though it has never been tried, would probably turn out ineffectual
as a deterrent to others. Burr was indeed threatened with the gallows in New Jersey, and was disfranchised in New
York, and he had to disappear for a while. His larger historic crime was still a short distance in the future.

Meanwhile Jefferson, peaceful man though be was, was to show fight in a cause which had strangely found all the
powers of Europe wanting-perhaps because they fancied that by making terms with robbers themselves, they would
thereby subject their neighbors to the inconvenience of robbery. We ourselves, under the belligerent Adams, had
stooped to pay tribute to the Dey of Algiers; and Commodore Bainbridge had not dared to resent the snuff-colored
ruffian's assertion that Americans were his slaves, who must run his errands in their men-of-war when he so ordered.
But this potentate, and his brethren of the coast, standing upon what they had gained, demanded so much more that
the quiet Jefferson, who after all had red hair, became annoyed, and decided that such impertinence must cease.
Accordingly he dispatched Commodore Dale with three frigates and a smaller vessel, to parade up and down the Barbary
Coast with a chip on his shoulder, as it were; and, should any pirate attempt to knock the chip off, to sink, burn
and destroy him. Dale found at Gibraltar a couple of Algerian cruisers on the watch for American prey; he blockaded
them while the American merchantmen were convoyed out of danger, and then, with a frigate and a schooner, cruised
off Tripoli; and the schooner thrashed a Tripoli Ran fourteen-gun cruiser, much to the amazement and dismay of
Barbary. The main difficulty was to get the pirates to fight; like the Spanish in our day, they kept inside their
harbors, where the shallow water prevented us from getting at them. In 1802, Dale was succeeded by Morris, who
did nothing, and more ships were ordered. Several of the corsair ships were captured or blown up, and in 1803 Preble
was put in command of the entire American fleet in the Mediterranean.

He found Bainbridge, who had taken the Dey's message to Constantinople years before, with the tatter's flag flying
from our frigate's masthead, and-his own tail between his legs-be found this unfortunate person a prisoner of Tripoli,
be having run his ships the Philadelphia, on a rock while pursuing a frigate of the enemy. He and his men were
now slaves in good earnest. But Decatur was a young lieutenant whose ideas of what befitted an American differed
from those of Bainbridge; and Decatur, with a picked crew, in a
small ketch, ran into the harbor of Tripoli, and burned the Philadelphia where she lay at anchor; although all
the guns of Tripoli were throwing shells at him and his men meanwhile. The Dey might get ransom for Bainbridge,
but he world never be able to show an American frigate as a prize. The breed of Decaturs appears periodically in
our navy; sometimes they disguise themselves as a Cushing, or again as a Hobson. But whatever name they go by,
they announce themselves by always attempting some deed of desperate daring, and always succeeding in it. Congress
gave Decatur a, sword and a captaincy, and he waited for another chance. Preble, relieved in the autumn by Barron,
with the President and the Constellation, continued the blockade, and captured or sunk more vessels. The American
navy was becoming a national favorite, and a special "Mediterranean Fund" tax was levied to keep it in
condition. But though Jefferson was our first High Admiral, he had misgivings as to whether the game was worth
the candle; and tried to save expense by the device of small gunboats for coast protection. A gunboat without steam
power, however, was not found to be of much avail; and Fulton had not yet earned his first steamboat fare. The
war came to an, end in 1505 on a basis of "mutual friendship," and, one regrets to note, on the promise
of the payment by the United Staten of $60,000 as ransom for American prisoners held by Barbary, in excess of those
that could be exchanged for prisoners captured by us. For all that, the peace was looked upon as a victory for
the United States, and the other Barbary powers wished to make similar arrangements. The rating of the corsairs
was taken out.

War or no war, the Republic flourished. Gallatin's balance sheet was pleasant and interesting; the cold mannered,
conservative Swiss was just the man for Treasurer, without Hamilton's originative genius, but safer for economy.
Congress began the division of Louisiana. The inhabitants -of New Orleans, and the southern portion of the domain,
were alien in ideas as well as in race, and somewhat disposed to be troublesome; but the irruption of good Americans
would soon set them in order. General Wilkinson, afterward connected with the Burr conspiracy, was placed in charge
of the northern portion, with St. Louis as a center. The Indiana region was put under Harrison, and the Michigan
territory under Hull; and, finally, the district east of the Mississippi, with Spanish Florida as its southern
boundary, wan intrusted to the governorship of Robert Williams. This part became involved with the Yazoo land grants
made by Georgia in the last century to speculators under a law afterward declared illegal; the discussions and
negotiations over the assignees' title led to the adoption of the system of selling Government lands in 160-acre
lots, which still prevails. The . close of the session, and of Jefferson's first term, wan marked by the impeachment
trial of Judge Chase, the American Jeffreys in the Alien and Sedition Acts prosecutions. This man's name was on
the Declaration of Independence, and his war record wan good; but he was probably saved from conviction in thin
trial less because he deserved acquittal than because Randolph of Roanoke had been injudiciously engaged to conduct
the prosecution. The apelike rantings and eccentricities of this odd' creature, and his rank inability to make
a solid and coherent argument, were sufficient to arouse the sympathy of the Senate for' the object of his attack.
Moreover, Chase had a bad case of gout.